Integrated circuit (IC) devices are finding wide-spread use in the electronics industry and before they are bonded to a circuit the same are tested to determine whether the IC device is functioning and that electrical continuity is present between the various portions of the device. To do this, the IC is placed in a socket which is attached to test circuitry. The whole assembly of test circuitry and IC may also be subjected to elevated temperatures while the IC is being electrically tested. Thus the procedure may be referred to as "test and burn-in" and the socket a test and burn-in socket.
One type of IC device is formed merely with small balls of solder attached to one planar surface of the device in a regular array of equally spaced rows and columns. Such a device is called a ball grid array (BGA) device and is designed to be mated to an interface circuit board by reflow soldering the BGA solder balls to an equal number of pads on the circuit board.
Test sockets for BGA devices in the past have contacted the solder balls with a single beam contact or a pointed rod contact which have caused undesirable damage to the solder balls or imparted unbalanced forces to the BGA device which had to be countered by the structure of the socket. It would be desirable to provide a socket which eliminated these undesirable effects.